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Sunday, September 5, 2010

Leonie Haimson: Parents Across America demand to be heard

Leonie Haimson: Parents Across America demand to be heard

Leonie Haimson

Leonie Haimson

Posted: September 4, 2010 02:04 PM

Last spring, a new grassroots organization calledParents Across America wrote a letter to President Obama, pointing out how parents had been left out of the education discussion at the national level. From the administration's "Race to the Top" proposals to their proposed "Blueprint" for revising NCLB, parent input has been either dismissed or ignored.

We wrote an article for Education Week, calledShutting Out Parents, about how this conscious disregard of the parent perspective was unacceptable, and must be reversed.

We explained how we wanted to see a quite different set of reforms, focusing on strengthening neighborhood schools rather than closing them down, by providing smaller classes, more parent involvement, and a well-rounded curriculum. Moreover, we pointed out how these reforms are